Yorks Cafe
JOB SUMMARY
As Lead Chef at Yorks, your job is to lead and manage your kitchen team to execute perfect plates of food which help to deliver incredible customer experiences, ultimately making your café the best part of our customers’ day. You'll manage costs, keep to budgets, execute to spec and maintain exceptional food hygiene standards, all while making sure your food is the best it can be.
Yorks is a vibrant yet super-accessible café space “owned” by our customers, with our soul rooted in coffee and globally inspired all-day-brunch. We aim to create a future where Yorks’ legacy is one that has a lasting positive impact on the people we serve and the environment in which we live. As the Lead Chef, you will oversee all daily operations in your kitchen to help realise this vision.
OUR BRAND, MISSION & VALUES:
Our collective job as a team and Reason We Exist as a business is..
To be the best part of peoples’ day.
Whether a memory with friends and family or a moment of escapism and relief; through the power of food, drink, and positivity, we make people feel good.
Our Mission
To make positive local change for global good. Through engagement with our teams, customers, suppliers and the communities where our cafes and restaurants are located, we will make incremental positive change to our environment, our communities and the health and wellbeing of all people we come into contact with.
We will do this with humility, never be preachy, and facilitate local change by offering choices rather than forced conformity or guilt-tripping.
Our Values
JOB DESCRIPTION / LEAD CHEF
Job Area Objective
-Kitchen Management: Oversee the daily operations of the kitchen, ensuring efficient workflow and high productivity. Train your kitchen team, line cooks, and kitchen assistants. Maintain high standards of food preparation, presentation, and quality.
-Menu Execution: Ensure the full menu is available at all times. Ensure each dish is cooked to the correct recipe standard and costing as per the specification. Ensure all dishes are prepared promptly to minimise waiting times and maximise table turnaround.
-Inventory & Supply Chain Management: Maintain inventory of kitchen supplies, ingredients. Manage stock and conduct regular stock checks to minimise waste and hit GP target. Place orders with approved suppliers in a way to minimise stock holding and wastage, while ensuring that the full menu can always be served.
-Health, Food Safety & Hygiene Compliance: Ensure strict compliance with food safety and hygiene regulations. Manage health and safety protocols in the kitchen. Train kitchen staff on proper sanitation and safety procedures.
-Gross Profit (GP) & Financial Control: Control food costs and kitchen man-hours while maintaining quality and efficiency of kitchen operations. Monitor and continually review ways to minimise wastage • Work with the front of house team to ensure cafe wide GP targets are achieved.
-Quality Control & Customer Experience: Ensure customer experience is achieved with the quality of food served. Address and resolve any issues related to food quality or customer feedback. Work with the front of house team to encourage feedback and monitoring of food quality.
-Team Leadership & Team Development: Lead the kitchen team, fostering a positive and productive work environment. Mentor and develop kitchen staff, encouraging continuous learning and skill improvement. Manage staff rotas, workloads, and resolving any kitchen team issues.
Key Performance Indicators: At Yorks, we believe that by focusing on KPIs we will remove ambiguity and all agree what “success” looks like. This will help ensure we’re all working towards the same goals. Monthly KPIs targets can be found in your Cafe Managers Report. Use this report as a working document to help you run your cafe.